


"well, reid got propositioned by every prostitute we talked to."

by writing_way_too_much



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: (jk i started typing it in lowercase and was too lazy to change it), Idiots, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, lowercase because aesthetic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 03:04:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11797077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writing_way_too_much/pseuds/writing_way_too_much
Summary: morgan wrangling with his feelings and reid acting on some of his own.





	"well, reid got propositioned by every prostitute we talked to."

**Author's Note:**

> set around season 2 (the title quote is from season 2 episode 22 "legacy")
> 
> enjoy!
> 
> [i do not own the characters and this is completely fictitious]

later, when morgan thought about it, he was jealous.

_ jealous of what, derek? _ he asked himself. 

he didn’t let himself answer. 

he was afraid of what the answer would be.

_ “how’d it go?” _

_ “well,” hotch said, “reid got propositioned by every prostitute we talked to.” _

_ morgan laughed to hide his discomfort at the situation. reid made that grimace he always did when something like this happened. _

what was he jealous of?   


people showing reid affection.

he was jealous of them being able to be open about it, to hit on him per se and nobody was suspicious. hotch was clearly amused at the situation, prentiss too. reid seemed unused to the attention.

morgan wanted to scream.

sure, he teased reid, but it was under the guise of friendly camaraderie. he couldn’t actually flirt with reid, as much as he longed to. someone, probably garcia, would notice and then he’d just be royally screwed.

all he could do was hide his feelings and pine from afar.

and then morgan really messed up.

they were on a particularly bad case. there had been a middle-of-the-night surprise from the unsub that took the form of a head delivered to hotch. morgan hadn’t had time to change out of his sweatpants and t-shirt, so he was currently in the driver’s seat of a car, lights and siren blaring. he had barely remembered to get his gun, he was so tired.

“there! up on your left!” reid said. morgan almost missed the turn and overcorrected, skidding a bit. reid was clutching the armrest so tightly that his knuckles were white.

they were on a police chase at three in the morning and morgan absolutely should not have been the one driving. he and jj had stayed up too late at the station, bouncing ideas off of each other. morgan had only been asleep for half an hour when he got the call from hotch.

“morgan! pay attention!”

reid’s voice was sharp and morgan winced. “sorry, man, i’m so tired i’m almost seeing double,” he admitted.

“then why the hell are you driving?”

the unsub stopped his vehicle and morgan didn’t notice, running straight into it.

“shit.”

reid shoved his door open, using his full body weight. morgan’s was wedged shut against the unsub’s car. “c’mon, morgan!”

morgan unbuckled his seatbelt and saw, through a broken windshield, that the unsub had been knocked unconscious. as much as he wanted to just let the bastard burn, it would be very bad if the unsub died and it was his fault for driving when he was exhausted. however, reid had other ideas.

reid grabbed morgan’s arm and physically pulled him out of the car-- _ jesus, when did this kid get so strong _ \--and morgan fell onto the pavement. 

“the unsub,” he choked out.

“let him die,” reid said. “it was his fault we got wrecked anyway. oh, god, we need to get away from the car--” 

the first flames were starting to dance up from the ruptured gas tank, beautiful in their deadliness.

morgan and reid scrambled a safe distance away. morgan laid his head on reid’s shoulder and his eyes closed of their own accord. reid called hotch, told him the street they’d wrecked in the middle of.

when first responders got there, the unsub was dead.

morgan personally didn’t care. but he thought of elle and the suspicious circumstances surrounding her resignation and knew that he had to convince everyone that the unsub had stopped his vehicle first.

reid backed him up.

he ended up getting off with a warning and some stricter surveillance on him. hotch privately told him that he was not to drive a vehicle again if he knew he hadn’t had enough sleep.

after that disaster, something changed.

reid had always been more of a follower than a leader. now, he was almost protective of morgan. it was endearing but a bit stifling.

on a new case, the police chief wouldn’t even look at morgan or acknowledge his existence. morgan was getting increasingly more frustrated as he tried to offer insight that was promptly ignored.

“why are you ignoring morgan?”

the question came from reid, and the police chief shifted uncomfortably. “i, um, don’t think that agent is offering valuable input--”

“he just called garcia and got us information about possible unsubs!” reid exclaimed. “how is that not valuable input?”

reid was standing, facing the police chief, and his eyes were full of fire. the chief didn’t stand a chance. “are you just pretending he doesn’t exist because he’s black?”

“i--no, just--”

reid whirled around and left the room.

“great work,” hotch told the police chief sarcastically. “we have a loss of input from two of our best agents now.”

as amazing as “best agent” sounded to morgan, he had to go find reid.

it wasn’t that hard. reid was just slamming the door to the street as morgan left the conference room.

when morgan caught up to reid, he was surprised to see the level of anger on reid’s face.

“hey, reid.”

“why was he being so rude to you?”

morgan shrugged. “people are racist.”

reid spun around and faced morgan. “that’s wrong.”

“look, as cute as you being angry on my behalf is--”

reid looked thunderstruck. morgan realized what he’s said and cursed under his breath. he hadn’t been planning on revealing that particular bit of information to reid.

“you think i’m cute?”

“um.”

morgan took three steps back but reid followed him.  _ shit. am i about to get chewed out for this? told about the fraternization rules? get homophobic comments? reid wouldn’t do that, would he? not after how he just defended me? shit. _

reid kissed him.

morgan was so completely not expecting it that he barely kissed reid back.

later, when he thought about it, that was his mistake.

reid drew away, slowly, and morgan was so stunned that the man he’d been pining after for what seemed like an eternity had actually just kissed him, lips on lips, that he couldn’t form words.

“oh.”

reid looked crestfallen.

morgan cleared his throat, tried to speak, but he couldn’t get a coherent thought to pass through his mind.

“sorry.”

reid left, and morgan was positive that he had tears in his eyes as he pulled the door open with more force than was necessary and let it slam shut behind him. morgan stayed rooted to the ground, trying to process what had just happened.

he didn’t go back inside.

hotch called, about ten minutes later. morgan had gone to the doughnut shop two buildings away. “morgan, where are you? what happened with reid?”

“nothing,” morgan said, voice clipped.

“then why is he upset? he won’t talk, denied that he was crying, and you’ve run off to god-knows-where. morgan, we’re on a case! don’t let your heartbreak get in the way of the job, reid’s either.”

hotch hung up before morgan could reply.

morgan sat down heavily in a chair and put his head in his hands and regretted every single decision he’d ever made that led him to this moment.

he couldn’t believe how badly he had messed this up.

later, when morgan made it back to the station, reid was nowhere to be seen, but prentiss reassured him that everything was okay.

“he wouldn’t tell us what happened, said he was turning in early. migraine.”

morgan bit the inside of his cheek and hated himself for not kissing reid back.

when they finally called it a night, morgan was worried enough about reid that he called garcia and asked her to track reid’s cell phone. she pinpointed his location to be at a bar and morgan muttered a quick “thanks” before taking off.

reid was sitting dejectedly at the bar, staring into space, and he was drunk.

morgan tapped him on the shoulder, trying not to startle him, and reid hiccuped. “go away. i’m sorry, okay?”

“you didn’t even look at me,” morgan said, and reid turned in his seat. his eyes were dull and his body language screamed melancholy and heartbreak.

“don’t have to,” he said. “i know it was out of line and wrong and i’m sorry, jesus, what else do you want me to do? send you fuckin apology gifts?”

reid was definitely drunk. he never swore.

“i’ll tell you in the morning,” morgan said. he didn’t want to take advantage of reid while reid was drunk. morgan won’t be  _ that _ guy.

“tell me that you don’t want to ever see my face again?”

“no, reid, but you’re not going to remember this in the morning. alcohol does that to a person. i’m not going to take advantage of you.”

even drunk, reid was perceptive enough to pick up on morgan’s signals. “so you like me.”

morgan sighed and slung an arm around reid’s shoulders. “c’mon, let’s get you to bed.”

“what if i want you to take advantage of me?”

morgan froze.

that sentence definitely should not be as hot as reid had made it sound, and morgan swallowed.  _ he’s drunk, derek, you can’t. _

he got reid back to the hotel and dropped him unceremoniously into bed.

“here,” reid said, patting the mattress next to him, and morgan shook his head.

“i told you, i’m not taking advantage of you while you’re drunk.”

reid frowned a bit. “tomorrow?”

“okay,” morgan said.

in the morning, reid didn’t remember a single bit of their conversation, but he did wince at light and noise and quite frankly morgan was concerned about the amount of alcohol reid had consumed last night for his hangover to be this bad.

“hey, pretty boy,” morgan said, opening the door. reid pulled the covers over his head.

“do you remember the conversation we had last night?” morgan asked. cautiously.

“no.”

“do you remember that you kissed me?”

“yes.”

“i meant to kiss you back,” morgan said, staring at the lump under the covers that was reid, and reid sat up.

“oh?”

“yeah, i...i really like you, spencer.” the name was unfamiliar in his mouth but it felt right the moment he said it.

“let me brush my teeth,” reid said, getting out of bed. he did and when he stood in front of morgan, his face tired and hopeful, morgan wanted to kiss him senseless.

“can i kiss you?” he asked, and reid nodded his consent.

morgan kissed reid, finally finally finally, and it was slow and sweet and loving, morgan’s dream come true. he almost couldn’t believe it was actually happening but reid’s hands on his waist, trailing gentle paths up and down his back, convinced him that it was real.

reid kissed him back.

morgan lost the sense of jealousy he once had, that other people could flirt with reid and it would get brushed off as nothing, because he put himself out there and took a risk and damn, did it ever pay off.

reid broke the kiss to breathe. morgan’s nose bumped his and he giggled, causing morgan’s heart to melt. he kissed reid again, just because he could.

there was a warm feeling coursing through his body and morgan knew it was happiness.

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos are always appreciated and they make me smile :)
> 
> hmu on tumblr @writing-way-too-much


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